Windows 8 Tip: Run Metro Apps in Windows on the Desktop

Windows utility maker Stardock has released an amazing application that lets you run Windows 8 “Metro” apps in a window alongside traditional Windows applications. It’s not free, but if you use Windows 8 on a desktop PC as I do, this might be the best $5 you ever spend.

Windowed Metro apps. As you know, Metro apps can only be run full-screen or in the Snap pane in the Metro environment. But ModernMix provides the interface I asked for over a year ago, the ability to run Metro apps in windows alongside traditional desktop applications.

Pin to taskbar. Now you can pin Metro apps to the taskbar too!

ModernMix menu. A small ModernMix menu in the top right corner of Metro app windows lets you toggle back to full-screen if desired … And vice versa! Just mouse over it and make your choice.

Remember settings. You can resize and position Metro app windows and ModernMix will retain those settings the next time you run the app.

As you may know, I’m not generally a fan of contorting the Windows 8 user interface to make it more like classic Windows versions. But if you are using Windows 8 on a traditional desktop computer or laptop, this makes a ton of sense. I’ve bought it. You should at least take a look.

Did we ever see any extensive metrics detailing peoples desire for only full screen apps on a desktop and laptop? Maybe they should have asked their users whether they wanted this instead of assuming they know what users want. Especially since the Metro environment is the way forward, meaning that windowed applications to them was a thing of the past.

I completely agree.... I don't need Skype taking up my entire 27": desktop. My point has always been "WINDOWS" not Window!!
I'm curious to se what MS does with they Blue upgrade... let everything be in windows, bring back the start menu (when I am watching stocks I don't want to scroll through full screen desktop "start" window... it's the little things...

YES!
And they could even make a step further and provide that (or even better) functionality as a part of "Legacy Essentials Pack", or create additional SKU for 1.5 bln of existing devices.
They would then win both ways - provide an upgrade path for current users who don't have a touch screens but invested into large monitors.
And, by charging little more for that SKU or feature pack, they could still make a case for touch based less expensive solutions.
Unfortunately, it looks like Microsoft decided to make war not love:)

I wouldn't be surprised if it DOES break the sandboxing and security of the WinRT API by exposing it to the old Win32 runtime, but Stardock doesn't really have to care about that in the same way Microsoft does.

It also breaks the suspend/resume app model and negates the battery life savings that the WinRT model provides.

Choice is always a good thing, but I think Microsoft has decent reasons for not enabling this out of the box, my hope is that they don't go out of their way to squash efforts like this.

Let power users hack the system to work how they want it, with the understanding that you're deep into unsupported territory in doing so.

By "exposing it to the old Win32 runtime"? Microsoft's Metro *is* a app hosting environment on top of the "old" Win32 runtime, that's all. Try running a WinRT .exe from Windows Explorer -- you get a "host not found" error. The "host" is the Metro shell.
I get feeling that some people think that things like WinRT's File manipulation routines go direct to the disk or driver. They don't. They use CreateFile and the other Win32 APIs.

Yes, WinRT is built on top of COM, which is built on top of Win32, but that doesn't change my point: they are likely exposing vulnerabilities that don't exist in a stock Windows 8 install by breaking the sandboxing of WinRT apps. However, that's not as big of a deal for Stardock as it would be for Microsoft.

Actually if you look at the APIs to launch Modern apps, there's a hWnd parameter to reuse an existing window. I don't think it ought to be necessary to break the sandbox or power management to get this to work.

Umm...no. I'm so completely against this. Why can't people just get their heads out of the up-and-locked position regarding the desktop? It's time to put down the buggy whip, folks. I don't have a SINGLE thing on my desktop now. Even all my legacy apps are on the Start screen. If something runs on the desktop, it runs on the desktop. I get incredibly frustrated at the resistance to change.

Some of us have to real productive work and the constant flicking of screen modes drives me mad and the waste of screen real estate on my dual 24" monitors with Metro apps is criminal.

Yes if I am using a tablet I do want Metro apps and I am happy to be limited to two apps per screen and don't mind the new start screen because it does actually work when I am poking about with my finger.

But when I am using a keyboard and mouse and want the chrome to do detailed work I don't want to see anything to do with Metro.

The HUGE mistake Microsoft have made is trying to force desktop/keyboard/mouse users to work in an environment that is really designed for using your finger.

Apple know that you can't force the two completely different paradigms on users in these two completely different environments so why don't Microsoft get it. I absolutely hate Apple by the way, but they have got it right in this respect keeping IOS for tablets and OSX for desktop/laptops.

Without Start8, I would have reverted back to Windows 7 and waited to see if MS fix this madness in Windows 9, but Stardock are making a Windows 8 possible for productivity users. Long may they reign!

I DO accomplish "real productive work". And I also have dual 24? monitors. On my right monitor any legacy apps sit. My left holds, obviously, the Metro apps. I have yet to meet, however, anyone who actually is maintaining more than two or three active programs at one time. We do NOT multitask. We SWITCH task. Multitasking is worse than a lie. If I were to point out the biggest weakness is that developers AND Microsoft have yet to fully exploit the real potential of Live Tiles. The very excuse people give for insisting on having 8 windows open on their screen (which is just stupid, in my opinion) is because they claim they are actually working with them. The truth is that they are actually just observing them for a trigger that drives their need to interact with them. Live Tiles need to mature to the point that they perform that very function consistently. If I have Live Tiles feeding me the right info there's no need to ever actually run the app unless I see something flagging my attention. This leaves me to focus on the one or two programs the normal human is actually capable of actively interacting with. As a network administrator, THIS is where I see the value.

As for the keyboard/mouse issue, I've found that I have zero issues controlling Windows 8 without a touch screen. Would I prefer a touch screen? You bet. But I don't feel inhibited in the least. In fact, other than actually needing to type something, I can EASILY operate Windows 8, both sides, with just a mouse.

Thank you for telling me what I do, since you know me so well. When I'm running a video programming tutorial app from the store while following along and actively testing my ability in CodeBlocks to make sure that I understand what I'm trying to learn, apparently I am not multi-tasking. Either that or I am not a normal human being like you. I am so lucky to have someone who can tell me I'm either a liar or not normal, it allows me to examine my true self and deal with my lies or abnormalities. Speaking of which, I should probably work on being less sarcastic, too.

I don't understand this complaint: "But when I'm using keyboard and mouse... I don't want to see anything to do with Metro".

So... uh... don't?

Seriously, I don't *get* this complaint. If you're on the desktop, just do the desktop stuff. Pin your most used apps to the task bar. Set program defaults to launch desktop apps instead of metro versions. The only time you'll see the start-screen is on boot-up (not a big deal), and when you want something you don't use often (again, not a big deal), or when you want to do a search of the system for something.

I don't understand how any of that is complaint-worthy. It works great. Use it like a "better Windows 7". I do this all the time.

These complaints remind me of that old comic joke: "Doctor! It hurts when I do this!" showing a man bending his hand completely backwards. The doctor replies "So... don't do that."

The reason it's a complaint is that a lot of stuff like the following switch to Metro:

Starting VPNs
Changing Settings
Plugging in my HTC8X starts a Metro App!?
When I plug in devices that have storage like cameras and USB devices Windows tries to associate the action with Metro apps.

If I am a desktop user I NEVER want any of that Duplo rubbish I want desktop apps period.

As I say, on a tablet, completely the opposite, I do not want to see any Desktop apps. My point is we should get the choice when you install to select the desktop paradigm or the Metro paradigm, better still keep different versions of Windows for desktop or tablet.

There is just too much pain in trying to do both. And NO I do not want to ever lose the desktop environment no matter how much doing that seems to make sense to the drones at Microsoft.

As I said...how can you get WORK done? I'm using 8.1 at the moment, and enjoying it (but for my inadequately powered PC).

If MS wanted to stay alive, let's put it, they'd remove all traces of Metro and go back to a desktop windows. I don't give a rat's arse about your "change" argument: change for the sake of change is crap.

If you just showed me the screenshot, I would have thought this article was 22 days early.
Can't fathom why Microsoft can't/won't do this. Perhaps they need to see Windows 8 sales collapse before the penny drops.

I'm liking the Windows 8 apps Stardocks is releasing. My next computer will most quickly be a tablet so I don't know if I'd buy ModernMix, but it does look like a coo program that bring a missing feature to Microsoft's latest OS.

Yes Decor8 is another great add-on. I wasn't too sure about ModernMix but I'm really enjoying it as I've using Windows 8 for nearly a year now and have found myself moving more and more towards the desktop. ModernMIx though helps keep Metro apps not only easily accessible but see what is running more quickly. Well worth the price, though a shame it wasn't part of the OS to begin with.
side note: I also used Windowsblinds heavily more many years yet stopped once Windows 7 came out. It became less necessary (guess the novelty wore off)

Why would you want to use a Metro app in a window, when you can use a Windows app in a window. I've been using Start 8 and haven't touched metro since I was using the beta versions. I just wish the whole metro thing would go away for desktop computers.

"Why would you want to use a Metro app in a window, when you can use a Windows app in a window."

While I currently have no plan on using Metro apps on my Win8 machine, I can see a couple benefits:

1) Apps which have no desktop counterpart (I'm assuming that there are quite a few game apps that are made like this - maybe I'm wrong).

2) Apps which come from the Windows store have the seal-of-approval from MS as being non-hostile, I think. If you are especially malware-conscious, running a windowed metro app may give you a nice combination of safety and flexibility.

Again, I don't plan on doing this now, but if there were a metro app I just had to have, I'd consider it.

That's what should have been in Win8 for the first place. I wish Win8 would offer an option. Touch-centric UI like it is now, or a Desktop-centric UI where the start screen resides on the desktop background (alongside the taskbar) and with metro apps running in a window. Forcing users into an environment that they don't want to use is just bad.

And I maintain it's more about what's wrong with users. I just find it impossible to find credibility in people who call themselves power users when they are apparently incapable of adapting a new way of computing. There's just nothing you people can say that will convince me otherwise. I'm not excusing the weakness of native Metro apps--not at all. But we have to be the ones DRIVING the improvements instead of just metaphorically chopping off a leg of the OS because some of us are to stubborn, stupid or lazy to change.

remove one of your monitors and then come back and tell us how nice it is to be thrown back into metro every time you double click the wrong thing or plug in a usb device. Metro basically takes us back to DOS -- one window mentality. If you do graphics or programming you always need at least two windows open and usually more. Metro is however tolerable as you say if you can put metro on one monitor and he desktop on the other. But why would you not just stick with the desktop where you have complete freedom to resize and move windows around. There is none but sure you can adapt to the old DOS mentality if you are stubborn enough to insist on believing all change is good.

Good post. I purchased Start8 and love it. It's amazing what a simple piece of software can do.. and I don't understand why Microsoft doesn't get it.

So far, I use Start8 and Fences from Stardock. I will totally chuck up $5 for this app. Since I started using Windows 8 I've wanted Metro apps in a Window. Why would I want a calculator to take up the full screen and then be constricted to only having it be able to pinned to 1/3 or 2/3 of the screen. It's absurd. Good for them... and honestly, good price point. If it were $20, I wouldn't buy it. For $5, I'm in.